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Near the end of the Ohio St. game, Zack Novak appeared to intentionally hit PJ Hill with an elbow in the face after a free throw attempt. He was given a flagrant foul and ejected from the game. Coach Beilein announced that Novak will serve a one game suspension:

“We are taking swift and appropriate action with Zack for the unacceptable incident that occurred at Ohio State,” said Beilein. “After speaking with Zack, he understands the severity of his actions. He expressed regret and embarrassment for his behavior. I hope Zack will learn a valuable lesson from this imposed discipline.”

This seems like the appropriate response. People have made comparisons with the Conboy play on Kampfer. While there are common features, the biggest difference is that this is Zack’s first time pulling something like this while Conboy had a string of prior bad acts. Hopefully this was a one-off, gritty freshman mistake. For those of you who like Jevhohn Sheppard, you’ll be seeing plenty of him against Purdue.

UPDATE: The Big Ten approves of the suspension. Here’s the commish:

“Zack Novak’s actions at the end of the Ohio State game are unacceptable and have no place in the sport of basketball or the Big Ten Conference,” Commissioner James E. Delany said. “We support Michigan’s implementation of a one-game suspension. Also, SEC sux, Big Ten rulez!*”

4 Comments so far

Drew says...

This is hardly comparable to whole Conboy/Tropp BS. Novak threw back an elbow that he had to have thought MIGHT hit Hill, who had been playing dirty all game. I’m still standing behind the fact that he didn’t even connect with that POS. Regardless, it’s not similar because Conboy chased down Kampfer and was staring straight at the back of his head when he let that punch go.

Do I wish he wouldn’t have done it? Yea. That was in no way a Michigan type move. But if he is getting suspened for it, I wish he would have caught him in the jaw and put him on his ass.

mdblue says...

Looked to me on replay that he did catch him in the jaw.

Regardless, not comparable to the Conboy incident. Novak did not knock Hill out.

Drew says...

I suppose I could have watched the replay a little more closely, but if he did indeed catch him, it was just barely.